Standards Based Approaches for Cross-Domain Data Integration

The term "geohazards" provides a label for a common way of looking at the relationships between the state of a phenomenon, its geographical context and the impacts it may have. This way of thinking applies equally to hazards such as floods, landslides, severe weather, biological agents etc. Each of these domains must be modeled separately according to the way it behaves, but there are common problems, and in the case of geohazards, need for common views of the potential impacts and linkages. A common approach allows us to integrate data, or simply be the enabler by allowing us to share tools and methodologies. Agreement on the commonality means "standards" - and mechanisms and governance of these standards. This paper proposes an outline of the set of standards required to achieve cross-domain data integration, and the governance arrangements required to achieve this. In particular, it proposes a potential mechanism for INSPIRE and other Spatial Data Infrastructures to achieve cross-domain harmonisation of data standard specifications through a simple generic geographic contextualisation framework that removes the need for complex cross-domain interdependencies in data models.